Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33903220›Full record

ArticleThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience2021

Brain Coding of Social Network Structure.

Michael Peer, Mordechai Hayman, Bar Tamir, Shahar Arzy

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
30citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

30 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Medial temporal lobe encodes cognitive maps of real-world social networks.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
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  8. Parallel systems for social and spatial cognition reaching the cortical apex.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
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  14. Interactions between neural representations of the social and spatial environment.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024
    Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Michael PeerDepartment of Medical Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91120, Israel michael.peer@mail.huji.ac.il shahar.arzy@ekmd.huji.ac.il.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8373-8558
Mordechai HaymanDepartment of Medical Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91120, Israel.
Bar TamirDepartment of Medical Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91120, Israel.
Shahar ArzyDepartment of Medical Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91120, Israel michael.peer@mail.huji.ac.il shahar.arzy@ekmd.huji.ac.il.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Humans have large social networks, with hundreds of interacting individuals. How does the brain represent the complex connectivity structure of these networks? Here we used social media (Facebook) data to objectively map participants' real-life social networks. We then used representational similarity analysis (RSA) of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activity patterns to investigate the neural coding of these social networks as participants reflected on each individual. We found coding of social network distances in the default-mode network (medial prefrontal, medial parietal, and lateral parietal cortices). When using partial correlation RSA to control for other factors that can be correlated to social distance (personal affiliation, personality traits. and visual appearance, as subjectively rated by the participants), we found that social network distance information was uniquely coded in the retrosplenial complex, a region involved in spatial processing. In contrast, information on individuals' personal affiliation to the participants and personality traits was found in the medial parietal and prefrontal cortices, respectively. These findings demonstrate a cortical division between representations of non-self-referenced (allocentric) social network structure, self-referenced (egocentric) social distance, and trait-based social knowledge.

Indexed as

Social InteractionSocial NetworkingAdultBrainBrain MappingFemaleHumansMagnetic Resonance ImagingMaleSocial Mediadefault-mode networkFacebookfMRIsocial distancesocial mediasocial networks

Identifiers

PMID33903220
PMCPMC8260169

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.